Breaking Point
by Julsgracie
Summary: Bella's at the breaking point, and there's no one who can help her now. She sees and feels Edward everywhere, but he hasn't returned. What will happen to Bella when she breaks out of her numb state? Will the hallunciations drive her to insanity? BXE
1. Chapter 1

_**Breaking Point--Chapter 1**_

Bella's POV. Takes place in the later months of New Moon. Edward had been away for about half a year and Bella never became involved with Jacob.

Please look on my profile for more information on this story and feel free review/messsage me if you don't understand what happened or have a question.

Reviews are lovely!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.**

It's snowing. I turn my head slowly to the right and stare out the window blankly, watching the snowflakes melt into raindrops before touching the grass. My teacher is saying something, but it sounds like mush. Like the words were put in a blender and smushed together before he spoke them.

"_Romeo and Juliet_ was Shakespeare's most…"

Shakespeare. So that's what he's talking about. I try to grasp what's happening, but nothing makes sense anymore. The figures in the room blur and I feel like I'm trapped in a tiny room with no oxygen. I grip the desk and close my eyes, trying to keep from hyperventilating. I can feel every pair of eyes on me, like throbbing pulses all over my body. I turn to the left, trying to escape…

And something happens that has never happened before.

_He's _sitting there, just as he always was before the end. He's perched gently atop the stool, a pencil dangling off the tips of his long fingers. One of his feet rests on the bar halfway down the stool, the other suspended several inches above the tile floor. His elbow is placed on the table, and the sleeve is partly rolled up. His skin is impossibly white and looks as smooth as glass. Beside his arm is a single sheet of paper, and he's writing. His hand is wavering back and forth gracefully, flawless handwriting flying across the page.

But I can't see his eyes. They're hidden; soft bronze hair is tumbling across the icy planes of his face, rolling gently.

My hand begins to lift off the table, quivering wildly in the air. I'm reaching, reaching for the lock of hair concealing his eyes. My fingers feel heavy, like there are weights tied to them. And I extend my arm out slowly…

Someone snickers. My teacher stops mid-sentence. The squeaking of the chalk against the blackboard disappears.

I can't see anything but him. I can't feel anything but him.

Edward continues writing. His mouth is moving, but no words are coming out. A couple of girls in the back are giggling under their breath, but the sound feels miles away.

And my fingers are inches from his face…

Someone grabs my arm. My eyes rip themselves away from him, looking down at the hand around my wrist in shock. Angela Weber is standing beside me, her eyes larger than I've ever seen them, her face pale. The entire class is motionless; every pair of eyes is staring at me intently, and the silence is unnatural.

I snap back to look at him, and he's gone. There is no sign that he was ever there. No sheet of paper, no pencil. The stool is pushed halfway beneath the desk.

Angela loosens her hold on me and I feel myself paling, suffocating. I lift my arm again and everyone gapes at me with open mouths and eyes as big as saucers as I reach through the air…

The air is empty. I wave my hand through the place where his face was, trying to grasp him with my fingers. My hand falls gently to the stool, and it's empty. Cold. And then there's darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

******_Breaking Point--Chapter 2_**

Bella's POV.

Please look on my profile for more information on this story and feel free review/message me if you don't understand what happened or have a question.

Reviews are lovely!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.**

I feel myself beginning to drift awake…catching bits and pieces of what's happening around me. I recognize the sound of a ringing telephone… and a door closing… and then I hear hushed voices coming from somewhere in the room.

I'm lying down on something hard and smooth and it cracks when I move. I open my eyes and it takes me a few seconds to realize that I'm in the nurse's office. Out of the corner of my eye, I can make out several figures standing in the center of the room. Someone rushes over to me.

"Honey, how do you feel?"

I just stare at her for a moment, studying her face. Her eyes are a pretty brown, like the color of leaves before they drop from the trees. I gaze at her, wondering who she is. Her expression changes and becomes concerned, and I watch as she looks over her shoulder and motions towards another nurse with deep red hair. She comes over, too, and I notice that both women are wearing shirts with little blue buttons. For some reason, this fact seems vitally important.

"Isabella, are you alright?" The red-haired nurse speaks to me slowly and clearly, enunciating each word. I turn my head to face her, not saying anything, looking between the two women silently.

The first woman smoothes her shirt self-consciously. "Oh, dear," she says. She lifts her hand to bite her thumbnail and my eyes flash down, catching the motion.

"Sweetie, my name is Miss Flias, do you know who I am?" The red-haired woman is speaking to me now, looking at me. These people are so strange…

She looks at me hopefully, but the muscles in my face feel glued together.

Miss Flias and the brown-haired woman drift away a couple of feet and speak quietly among themselves. I stare at a spot on the floor, my mind blank.

The brown-eyed woman hurries off, but Miss Flias returns.

"Bella," she says slowly "Do you remember what happened before you fainted?" She's kneeling down beside the cot, and I push my body upward until I'm sitting all the way up. She moves closer and sits beside me, facing me in an awkward position.

I sort of cock my head to the side, staring at her face. Her words don't make sense to me…

Miss Flias tries to smile encouragingly at me but begins chewing on the inside of her cheek nervously. I can only stare back at her.

Suddenly I notice the color of her eyes. I hadn't seen then before, but now it's like the rest of her face has melted away. They look like gold pearls, and they're burning. They're burning into mine.

I feel like someone has slapped me on every surface of my body at the same moment. I thrust my body up against the wall beside the bed, and everyone in the office looks up in shock at the noise. I'm pressing up into the corner, my knees folded into my chest, trying to get as far away as possible—trying to escape….

She's so close, and she's trying to look at me, she's trying to touch me. I hide my face, and I realize that I'm shaking. I'm shaking really hard…making the entire cot quiver. And the sound of my gasping fills the silent room. The air catches in my throat, making a horrible ghastly sound. It sounds like I'm trying to scream but I haven't had any water in a thousand years.

_I can't look at her…_

I feel her hands on my shoulders and they're not warm like they're supposed to be—they're cold. I release a blood-curdling scream and shield away from her desperately, trying to claw myself off the cot and to the door. I half-stumble across the tile floor; my legs feel like wet sponges. Several women are holding me now, trying to restrain me, and I fight. They're cold…they're all so, so cold, like ice. I can feel their hands on my arms, around my waist, on my shoulders, and it feels like there are bugs crawling all over every inch of my body.

I throw my head back and my eyes catch glimpses of smeared golden sunlight. At first I think it is only the light from the windows, and then as I focus I realize that they all have smeared eyes, gold topaz eyes, looking so unnatural and ghastly I feel like I am trapped in a nightmare. I scream again, trying to get them off me. They're cold, but not strong, and I break through, sprinting through the doorway and out of the building.

I'm running for what seems like the first time I've ever run in a lifetime. The ground disappears and I'm running on air; I can't feel my legs, my arms, my eyes…but there's this burning feeling on the surface of my skin where they touched me. The rest of my body feels numb, but the burning continues, perishing me.

The pain feels disconnected from my body, like it's floating around me, and I scream again. _I can't escape it…it's everywhere…_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Breaking Point-Chapter 3**_

Okay, if this isn't your first time looking at this story, I'm sure you're very confused.

I cut Peter out. He was weird. He didn't make sense. My plan for him didn't make sense. He had to go.

Chapters 1 and 2 are the same as before, but this chapter has been changed and Chapter 4 has been deleted. I am going to post a new Chapter 4 as soon as I can.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, good. Just keep reading.

I promise you that this story will keep getting better and better. The reason it is sort of without a plot is because the first chapter was orginally a one-shot. So I've sort of been blindly writing it since then, not knowing where I was going. Now I do, because of my brillant Twilight-obsessed friends. Edward will come in soon, don't give up on me.

As always, please message me with questions or comments.

Please review. If you are a nice person (or a writer yourself) you will review. It lets me know that people are actually reading the stuff that I spend countless hours creating. It's really important and nice and wonderful.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me. **

I'm running. My mind and my body aren't working together; my mind isn't really working at all. But I'm running.

I'm thrashing through trees and ferns, over fallen logs and uplifted roots. The numbness is beginning to disappear and now I can feel the ground beneath my feet, and the crusted mud on my hands, and the thick, heavy humidity hanging in the air. I fall for what seems like the millionth time, my foot getting hooked under a low-growing vine. But after a moment of squirming viciously, I manage to stagger unsteadily back up towards the sky.

I'm moving so quickly that I can't really tell what I'm passing anymore. My eyes are tearing and my hair seems to be permanently extended behind me. The trees are blurring and turning misty, it's like they're being wrapped in blankets of fog. The vibrant green is smearing to grey—washing away all the color.

And the forest is silent. Soundless…as if there had never been any sound, ever. I place my hands up to my ears as I fall against a tree, and they're there. But the quiet feels unnatural.

Nothing matters to me now. I lash through a bush with thorns, and somehow the pain feels good. Refreshing. And each time go tumbling towards the forest floor, I become more aware of everything, and it's like my nerves have finally been unleashed—sending rapid signals up to my brain like wildfire, as if to make up for all the feeling I've lost. My mind is jumbled, confused, trying desperately to catch up with my body. My senses are hyperactive, but there's no thought of forest survival or initial plans anywhere. Nothing matters. Nothing.

Except that I am moving. I don't know where I am going, but I am moving, and I don't care. It's different from being at home, at school, at work…it's different—it's _progress_.

I can feel the wind smacking me senseless, but I do not care. It feels wonderful. I can see the grasses zipping by me, and it feels wonderful. I can feel the scrapes at my hands stinging me like knives, and it feels wonderful. The movement of it…I am going somewhere, finally.

Far, far off in distance, I hear a siren, echoing through the stillness. But I keep going.

My skin begins to burn again as I remember the nurses, and an involuntary shudder ripples through me. But I can't think. My mind is failing in it's quest to find the slightest clue of why their hands, their eyes…of why.

Because there's no room. None at all. My head is full of the wind, of the grass, of the misty, foggy air. It's impossible to think of anything or to feel anything but the endless forest. And I'm sucking it in like steam through a fan.

I feel free.

I stumble, slowing down just enough to turn my head and glance behind me. I can't see even the tiniest sliver of light from a break in the trees anywhere. Not behind me, or in front of me. Only above. Up above, past the trees, are faint patches of sky.

I am encased. Nothing can touch me here. Nothing. It's like I'm in a leafy, green dome. An indestructible dome.

I twist my head forward again and run as fast as I can. I can't remember the last time I took a breath, but my body isn't reacting. It's just moving. I can barely control my legs anymore, I have become so used to the feeling. My lungs are processing without oxygen. Without the one thing in the word it needs.

I feel so comfortable, so content, it's like I could just keep going forever. So I do. I just run, and run, and run, and the sun starts to set, and the air becomes thick, and the crickets begin singing.

Suddenly I hear the faint sound of a bubbling creek. The sound grows until I feel like I'm right upon it. And then a beautiful, crystal clear brook comes into my view.

I slow to a walk and stop beside it. I just stare at the water for a while, unmoving, watching the streams of water draw patterns over the smooth stones. The ripples are sliding past each other, smoothing along down around the curve, dancing. And the movement of it makes the creek seem like a thousand individual streams of water, only merging and sliding and drifting into one another until they are joined.

I lift my head to look through the trees, and for the first time in what seems like days, there is light. Rays of melting sunshine are reaching in, kissing the grasses before me. I step forward, and I can feel the warmth radiating onto my ankles.

My legs are carrying my forward, towards the sunset, and I let them. It seems like I am barely moving, like a cloud is flying me into the light, but then I am there. The trees have vanished and loom tall behind me, fringing the dark forest. I close my eyes and breathe, feeling light and airy and wonderful and _whole. _And then I lift my head.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm standing on the edge of a meadow

I'm standing on the edge of a meadow. A clearing. It's smeared with late sunset, the winter grasses stretching into the purple clouds. I watch the few surviving snowflakes swirl wildly, racing each other around the perfectly circular space.

I drift forward a couple of steps and collapse into the grass.

It seems like an innocent enough place.

Beautiful, even.

But it has a strange edge. Like the feeling you get when you walk into a room where someone was murdered. Chilling.

I lay my arms down, and it stings. The grass—it cuts me. And then I can suddenly feel the red sky burning my skin, making my entire body blaze from the inside out. A stronger, more violent breeze comes, ripping through me.

The grasses and the wind are whispering in my ears, jeering at me. I can see their smiles, big shiny teeth. Full mouths. Their leafy eyes twinkle at me, malicious.

I gasp, astonished, and clutch my arms around my stomach. _What is this place?_

The wind laughs at me mockingly.

I watch, as a final ray of sunlight slices into a falling raindrop. The water glitters like crystal, splashing rainbow in my eyes.

And then I know.

I can feel the hole in my chest. It's there; it's very _there_. Deep, and bloody, and ghastly. I can feel the sting of it, piercing through me. Everything is hollow; my entire body, echoing.

My skin feels miles thick. Inside, I'm closing up, my throat getting smaller and smaller…

The hole sprawls out, stretching towards the edges of my body. Swallowing me up as it goes. Trying to turn me inside out.

So I rest my arms against the cool ground, and I let it.

I don't fight it. I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to fight ever again.

And then there are throbbing tears on my face. A single droplet slithers its way across my cheek like a slimy serpent, falling upon an upturned leaf below me.

I can't see anymore with all the water, my eyes are drowning it in. My face is drowning in it.

My cheeks are raw like open wounds.

My heart begins to pound painfully in my chest, a wild animal, smashing against my ribs. Trying to break free.

I'm afraid to move. Could it? What would happen if it did—would my insides come pouring out along with it? Will it empty me out completely until I'm nothing but flesh and bone?

Can you own heart betray you?


	5. Chapter 5

I'm standing on the edge of the meadow ALICEPOV

I knew this would happen. I knew it. But he didn't listen. Bella, oh poor, Bella…

She was curled up in the center of the meadow. She was asleep, but not still.

"Edward, no—Edward, please!"

She was writhing in the grass now, tears cascading down her face. Moonlight was pooling on her cheeks, and it took everything in me not to go to her.

"I love you," she whispered.

I sat there for hours, just underneath the trees, watching her. How could he have ever done this to her? He must have realized that she wouldn't simply forget…

Still, it was astonishing. I first saw the vision of Bella being loaded into an ambulance…and then I saw her running. I knew it wasn't right to come from some small corner of my mind. If she was running, she was okay, but, I ignored the warning. This place…it seemed familiar, somehow. From a vision, perhaps? I could see from her, that it held significance.

"Alice," she was saying. My head snapped up and I rose, walking forward a couple of steps. She hadn't said my name before now…

"Alice," she pleaded, "Please." She tossed over again and then screamed.

I was about a foot away from her now.

"Bella…" I whispered.

I sank down in the grass beside her, wet from her tears. "Alice."

"Yes, Bella?" I murmured. For the smallest fraction of a second, I wished she really could hear me…that she could know…Her eyes remained closed, but she turned her small body towards me. I could see how ill she looked.

"Alice," she murmured.

"Yes, Bella?"

"I love him, Alice."

Before I realized what I was doing, I had gathered Bella into my arms, her body hanging limply over my legs.

"I know, Bella," I murmured.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Breaking Point-Chapter 6**_

Bella POV.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.Bella POV

I awoke to rain. The sunlight from the day before was apparently short-lived, and angry clouds were rumbling across the sky now, seeking vengeance. The rain ceased to a quiet drizzle and I took in my surroundings. The meadow…

Then I remembered what had happened the day before. It all seemed very clear to me now, like the rain had washed me out. And I had had the strangest dreams during the night; so unlike my usual nightmares.

The beginning was ritual; Edward was walking from me…after he disappeared I searched in the trees for him for hours. And then Alice suddenly appeared, and we were speaking to one another.

I pushed myself up off the soggy ground and let the water droplets from the grass roll onto my legs. I was completely soaked through.

Life was irrelevant. That seemed to be the only practical conclusion that I could draw from the past day's occurrences. Life was meaningless without him. Eating, speaking, going to school…it was all so unimportant to me now. Because I knew I would never heal.

I knew that if nothing else mattered, nothing else in the world, Charlie did. Renee did. But I couldn't manage to convince myself of my own words.

It had been months. Half a year, and I never changed. My body never changed, my mind, my emotions. I was frozen, encased like stone. Perhaps vast amounts of time could wear that away, but it would be near impossible and incredibly painful.

Besides, what would all of that be worth? All that time? All that living? Nothing, truly. The pain was all I had left of me…after it disappeared I would empty. I would be hollow.

Something was wrong with me. Something was seriously wrong with me.

What could I do? He didn't want me, so there was no point looking for him. I knew I would never find him, but that was irrelevant. I needed to be searching, to be hoping. Perhaps my hope was only the only piece of me I still had.

If I didn't look for him, I would never survive. He was like my drug, a horrible addiction that I couldn't shake off. My body needed him—needed to see and hear and feel him. Or I was going to shut down.

How had this ever happened to me? It was amazing the amount of control and influence he had over me, over my body…it seemed my conscious mind was barely operating these days.

I stood up, and suddenly smelt something…it was faint, washed out from the rain, no doubt, but it was there. A wonderful, sweet, scent…


	7. Chapter 7

_**Breaking Point-Chapter 7**_

Alice POV.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.

"Edward, listen to me—_now_. If you aren't in Forks in two days, I'm interceding." I was back at the house now, speaking into my cell phone to Edward. Part of my mind was trying desperately to watch for Bella's future…it made me anxious to be away from her after seeing her condition last night.

But I knew that she would suspect something if I didn't get away from her. She would see a flash as I was running or smell the scent. I knew Bella would be able to identify it, unlike anyone else.

"I cannot believe you did this, Alice." He was fuming. His voice was stiff and low, like he was putting immense amounts of effort into controlling it. "Why are you just trying to make this difficult?! _We need to leave her a_—"

"I had a vision, Edward. An ambulance. They were loading her into an ambulance. Did you really expect me not come, knowing her life was on the line?"

An over-statement. How many times a month did Bella get loaded into a ambulance, really? But I knew it was freak Edward out, and I needed him to listen to me.

"What? The hospital? Is she—"

_Yes. _

"Yes, she's fine." I didn't tell him about the second vision. He would be furious, no doubt.

Edward took a deep breath. "Then leave, Alice." His tone was acidic. "Leave Forks—don't you dare go to her. If she is alive, then stay away."

"She's barely alive, Edward. She's mourning." I rushed through the words, trying to get everything out before he would cut off. "It's horrible. She's a mess. It's been six months, Edward, _six months_. She isn't going to just get over you. I saw her, I watched her…"

"You _what?_ When, _when _were you watching her?" I could hear somewhere, deep beneath the obvious fury, a sliver of unwilling jealously.

"I found her in the woods. She was in this little clearing—a beautiful place, really—a stream, no trees, tall grasses. It was so odd, perfectly round…"

I could hear him breathing." What, Edward?"

Nothing.

"Alice, what—what," he paused. "What was she doing?"

His tone amazed me. He didn't sound like a furious, overprotective vampire anymore. There was no anger.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes," he said calmly.

"She was crying. For a long, long time. It was so terrible, it was difficult not to show her that I loved her…"

"How close were you?" he asked quietly.

"Well, I was right beside her at one point…"

"How—" he paused. "What does she look like?"

"Oh, it's terrible, Edward. Horrific. She much, much paler then before—if that's possible—and she lost a lot of weight…"

A moment passed. "What happened after that, Alice?"

"She was speaking in her sleep, screaming for a while—tossing and moving about…and then she was speaking to you and then to me and…"

"She said my name?"

"Edward." I sighed, exasperated. He was such an idiot.

"_Of course_, Edward. Countless times. She was begging to you and she said 'I love you' at least once every hour."

He didn't say anything for a long moment.

"Ed?" I whispered.

"Alice…I just, I can't…"

"You need to, Edward," I said firmly.

"All this time, Al…all for nothing. She deserves…"

"You, Edward. She deserves you. It's only going to get worse. _Do you hear me?_ She'll never forget. Come home."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Breaking Point-Chapter 8**_

Bella POV.

A/N: _I LOVE this chapter. _

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.

I walked through the woods. I'm not sure how far, really. Hours and hours far. As far as I could take me.

The dense treetops blocked out most of the rain, but there was still a thick, misty layer of fog choking the forest. It was tiring to walk through this. Like walking through water. Heavy. But I kept going. Slowly and stiffly. No thoughts.

After a while, I came up on a road. I pushed through the fringing trees, and the sun danced into my view. There was suddenly so much space, like the Earth was sprawled out—nothing but air and light and wind and sound. Stretching on and on for miles on my left, and on my right, and right front of me. And up, too. I felt like my breath was trying to swirl around, to fill up all the space. But it was just too big.

I didn't recognize the road, but then again it's pretty hard to identify highways when you're out in the middle of nowhere. I sat down beside it, not really knowing what to do next.

No cars passed. Was this a ghost-road then? Did they even have those?

Then a police car began to approach me. It popped out of the horizon, the same way the sun does in the morning. Just not as pretty. Or quiet.

It sped up, pulling over to park illegally in front of me. The tires rolled past my toes like they were old news. It's flashers waved at the air and the trees and the emptiness, and the sirens wailed, like somebody cared.

A tall, lean man got out of the cruiser and skipped around the car to me. He had a smile like a birthday, a four-year-old's smile, and I could see all his perfect, straight teeth. I tried to understand why this inconsequential police office would be so happy to see me.

"Isabella Swan?" He grinned wider. Blindingly white teeth.

I looked up at him, and the sun scorched my eyes like it had been waiting all day to do it. "Hmm?"

"Miss, are you Isabella Swan?"

I turned my head back towards the gravel, wondering.

And then I remembered. Renee, Phoenix, dance lessons, fifth grade, high school, Charlie, Forks…Edward…

"Yes," I said numbly.

The strange man grasped my upper arm and pulled me to my feet unsteadily.

"Your father has been worried sick about you, honey. Come with me." He opened up the backseat of the cruiser and led me through, locking my wrists in his hands like he through I was going to try to make a run for it.

Who was it again that told me never to talk to strangers? Did that apply to me anymore? Or was there some age limit—eighteen and no one will want to abduct you?

After a moment the car began to move.

The officer studied me through his rear-view mirror.

He must have picked up on the blank look in my eye. "Isabella, how do you feel?"

I hesitated. No words came.

He picked up a radio receiver and tuned in. I watched him click the buttons with his littlest finger. "Sir, yes, I think we do need to involve the Paramedics…yes, this girl isn't coherent…I'm not sure, she's practically mute…yes, alright, over."

Once he'd placed the receiver down he swiveled around to look at me. Somehow I knew that I was too used to people not watching the road to make a fuss about this.

I looked up at him. Ginger eyes. How strange.

"Isabella, do you know where you are?"

This must have been the stupidest question I'd ever heard.

"I'm in a car," I answered.

The officer took on a panicked look and lunged for his walkie-talkie again.

"Yes, yes—Micheal? Yes, _absolutely_—_immediate_ support…"

I looked out the window and watched the leaves and the wind wave good-bye to me.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Breaking Point-Chapter 9**_

Bella POV.

A/N: I wasn't sure exactly what to do with this story after chapter 8, and I stopped working on it for a while. Then, out of nowhere, I found chapter 9 rotting away in my notebook. I have no idea when I wrote it, but who cares, right? Here it is, and please don't expect the next part too soon because I am a complete idiot. Also, sorry about the cliff-hanger.

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. If you guys review, I conclude that you like my story, therefore I updated. Otherwise chapter 10 may never see the light of day.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.**

"Hello Isabella. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions so we can help you get where you need to be, okay?"

I stared at her for a couple moments before realizing she expected some type of answer.

I nodded weakly.

"Good, good, all righty then. Isabella, why don't you start by telling me what happened at school yesterday. I take it you've been missing overnight."

_Missing?_ I, I only…

I tried to breathe, to see, to understand. But everything was so dense and so thick and so hard. I couldn't live through it.

"I…I can't remember yesterday." The past was blurring like watercolors, fringing my present and making everything incoherent.

"Nothing at all. Hmm…well, Miss Filas and Mrs. McAcon have informed me that you fainted yesterday."

_Miss Filas_…the name prodded at the edges of my brain as I struggled to find a place for it. It was so difficult to pay attention.

"Who?"

"I believe they are nurses at your school."

I flinched and drew away from her. I had remembered.

More than before, my vision weakened and it hurt to keep my eyes open. _Poison is ripping my eyes_, I thought. I cannot see, I cannot live.

"Isabella?" A pause. "Leslie! Call! It's worse than I thought. She's having hysterics."

Her voice turned back to me. For a moment there, it was just me and her. Me and this strange, unknown woman that I had barely had time to know. I felt like I should open my eyes, just push through the pain so that I could look at her.

I felt like her voice was clouding around me as she spoke again.

"All right, honey all right there. I'm calling help."

They loaded me onto a stretcher, and I knew that much. The feeling was familiar…the rough friction of the straps against my stomach, the hard but soft fabric.

I had never experienced a feeling like what was happening to me now. I felt half-disconnected, half-submerged, half-succumbed. Limbo. Indecision.

It was painful. Confusing. Every feeling was hot and sweaty or cold and icy. Too much, all at once, more than I could contemplate. New things were happening, new people speaking to me, new questions to answer and breaths to take, when I was still pondering something from hours ago.

I was being dragged, the way a water skier is dragged when he falls down behind a moving boat. The water the filling my lungs, clogging my skin, and making me choke. My eyes were washed out, blind. My body was filling up with water, getting heavier and heavier, little by little.

There was no way for me to stop the dragging. You can stop a motor—you can't stop life.

My eyes stayed closed.

I didn't move, but concentrated on my breathing, making sure I was still doing so. I hoped for unconsciousness. Wherever I could go from here would be an escape. I wasn't sure what would happen to me, but it didn't matter.

Nothing mattered, not at all.

I closed my eyes and breathed and breathed, and hoped.

But instead I heard a voice.

"Excuse me, young man, but you can't be here right now. This woman is mentally ill and we need to get her to a facility."

I opened my eyes, the water gone. Her words had made perfect sense to me, as if my mind was suddenly being occupied again. I stared at the women in shock and then flickered my eyes to the person she had been speaking to. Standing beside me.

My heart stopped beating and the water returned. It was unceasing, cruel. It made it difficult to see him, and that was far more tortuous. But I didn't move, I couldn't. I just stared at him, daring him to disappear. He stared back at me.

"Isabella, do you know him? Is he a relative? A friend?"

I didn't say anything.

Edward burned me with his eyes. More pain.

She turned to him.

"Excuse me, but we have an emergency here. You must leave now."

His lips parted. I thought that I could feel his breath. Surely he wasn't that close to me.

"Bella."

The woman observed my motionlessness and panicked, taking my pulse.

"OH MY GOD, oh my god—Sed! Sed we have _no heart activity_!"

I tried to reach for him, and that's when I remembered that I was strapped down.

Wordlessly, he broke the straps with a flick of his wrist, allowing me to pull myself up.

The woman watched us in awe, reaching for more equipment.

He slipped his cool, smooth arms beneath my knees and neck, and scooped me up into his arms. The woman opened her mouth and raised a shaking hand, as if to protest.

The ambulance workers froze.

Edward swiveled and walked away from them all, into the cool, safe forest, not taking his eyes off me.


	10. Chapter 10

_Breaking Point-Chapter 10_

Bella POV.

A/N: I got a great response for chapter 9. Well, I don't really want to over-state things...let's just say that every one of my reviewers, whether that number was plentiful or not, was very enthusiastic about this story. I normally reply to each of my reviews individually, and I wanted to do that, but I decided instead to buckle down and write the next chapter for you guys. So I'd like to thank everyone for all their reviews right here. I read all of them--thanks SOOO much. Same goes for messages...I had one especially endearing message. ;)

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. If you like this story, the only way for me to know is if you review. Story alerts are nice too, but really--why would you mark this but not review it? And messages are awesome too! If I don't get a good response, I'll just stop writing. I'm not being mean or anything, just honest.

For anyone who has read _Now or Never--_is it just me, or is this story becoming very much like a forest-situated version of that?? I seem to rock at Edward-Bella reunions in New Moon, so I guess I won't stop until I completely run out of things to say. (Or if no one reviews, of course).

Also: Is anyone interested in Ed POV? I honestly don't really want to do it, but I can try for you guys if everyone would love it.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.**

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My world had always been divided.

The way I see it, there is time, and there is reason. There is realism.

And then there is Edward.

Right now, I was so heavily submerged in that parallel universe of my life—so completely and utterly choked by it, that it would be impossible for me to contemplate anything pertaining to my other world. It seemed ludicrous to hold Edward to same height as my actual life. They were entirely different, separate spheres—separate species. All the time I spent with Edward seemed more a dream than reality, like I was only partly conscious.

My emotions were so complex, so intense and dizzying, that they weighed my body down and made it painful for me to concentrate. It was like seeing and feeling and hearing through a red haze…the light hurt my head, and the result was far-sightedness.

Edward drifted away from the ambulance. I could still see the red flashers where they reflected onto his cheek, and I could hear the shrieking siren. _She's getting away—she's getting away!_

No one followed us.

Edward watched me, and his eyes were so intense that they hurt to look at. They magnified when I turned my head in his direction, completely obscuring my vision from seeing anything else.

I felt…confused and tired…and weary. But at the same time I was completely aware of the immense, all-consuming love that was beginning to strangle me. It was a familiar sensation…and especially intense, as if it was angry with me for restraining it for so long.

My body took a long time to change emotions. It was like the seasons changing…the temperature was scorched, but the sea water was still cool from winter. My body was like that. Slowly, carefully, realization was trickling through me, inching along my veins like a thick, hot liquid, and my body absorbed it.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and fitted myself against him. His arms tightened.

He walked slowly and smoothly through the damp forest. I cool feel the soft pattern of his footsteps hitting the leaves, and I couldn't remember when he had ever walked so gently. _It must be torturous for him_, I thought.

The moments dragged on, heavy and steaming. His motion felt light and effortless beneath me. I knew that he could carry me to the ends of the Earth and never tire, and I wished for him to do just that. I wished that I would never have to let go of him.

The breeze played in his hair, like it was there just because he was. The breeze followed Edward's hair everywhere.

He was just as beautiful as I remembered. He was _more _beautiful than I remembered.

Edward suddenly stopped, and gradually fell to the ground. He positioned himself against a tree trunk, resting me in his lap and keeping his arms wound around me. I didn't let go, and I hoped that he didn't expect me to.

I shifted my body so that I could face him, and he closed his eyes, lacing his fingers into my hair on both sides of my head, and holding my forehead to his. His breath swirled into my face.

I tried to breathe evenly and as quietly as I could, but it wasn't working. I wanted to be able to _hear _him, to feel the unnecessary gasps of air he drew in through his lips. He was so close to me.

It seemed like the past six months had been my only existence—an entire lifetime in half a year. Always, for as long as I could remember, Edward was too far away. He wasn't just gone from my life; he was gone from the world. He was immensely distant, further away than I could imagine. Too far for me to travel in a thousand years. Immeasurable.

Now, he was practically welded to me. It was discombobulating, having him so close, so quickly. His proximity threw my breathing and heart beat patterns into oblivion. I was not used to this.

He folded his hands against my hair and leaned back, pulling my head against his chest. I curled up against him, my legs draped over his, resting on the leaves of the forest floor.

I wondered how long this moment could last before someone would take it away from me. Would time be so generous? It seemed unlikely. I was unsure if it was even possible for us to stay here forever. But that didn't matter.

I would starve before I moved out of his arms.

I would die.


	11. Chapter 11

_Breaking Point—Chapter 11_

This chapter is written from Bella's perspective.

This is the last chapter of _Breaking Point_.

A/N: The reason that almost all of my stories are 1) one-shots or 2) have really short chapters, is because it's really difficult to write the sort of manic depressive story-lines that I'm into. _Drama Club _has pretty nice sized chapters just because it's a more laid-back story (one of the reasons why i find it very annoying). But with something like this, I have to try to imagine how Bella is feeling at every moment during this time. (It was the same way with _Now or Never_…anything with very dense and overwhelming emotions). I'm very young; I've never been in love like her, and I've never met Edward (theoretically, none of us have met Edward and none of us ever will, although I'm sure you don't want to hear that) so I pretty much just have to close my eyes and be like, "Okay, I'm Bella. Now how do I feel?" Then try to translate whatever comes into the pit of my stomach into words. It's really hard. Not to complain or anything, but that is just an explanation for the short chapters.

Please, please, please, please review! This is the last chapter so REEEVVVVIIEEWW!!!

Oh, and in case you missed it, _t__his is the last chapter of this story_. I always get a lot of reviews with "update soon" on the last chapters of my stories, so I'm going to try to be really clear with this one. (Still review, though!!)

Oh, and sorry for the short length. (And my utter rambling).

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella, or Edward. If anything, they own me.**

* * *

Nightfall came, slowly, lazily. It came as if it was waiting for us to realize the darkening sky and leave; to go be wherever it was we had to be. But Edward and I didn't move. I laid in his arms, letting the thickness of night wash over me and seal us away.

I could imagine never leaving, never moving from the cool haven of his arms. It was a clear vision. Just remaining here, caught in this tense little bubble with him, with no means of escape. With no desire of escape. The idea was intoxicating.

My mind still buzzed with the complexity of the previous few days, gradually advancing on the present. Edward's breath rustled my hair slightly.

I wasn't sure of anything. I was barely aware of anything.

I've been thinking lately, that it's impossible to say that you're positive about something. Who can ever justify that? There's no way to know. There's no way to keep a promise. It's all fake. Just lies designed to look like truths; to fool you even easier and force you to believe them, until you're in so deep and everything is too hard and too strong and too endless, and you can't escape.

Even when you would trade everything you owned and anything you could borrow on a certain fact, it could still change. Anything can change. Anything.

Anything but _this_.

I knew that I wasn't going to be able to survive without him.

It would be too painful. I would wear away, the way stone wears away beneath the cyclic tide of the ocean, until nothing made sense and nothing mattered enough. Until nothing mattered enough to keep me here.

I wondered about the woman and the ambulance. Where were they now?

I wondered about Charlie. I could imagine him sitting in front of the TV, trying to use the game to distract him. Was he worried? Of course he was.

But for a reason I didn't know, all of that—Charlie, school, life, people, Jacob, everything—just wasn't _this_. It wasn't now, it wasn't _me_. I don't know how to say what I mean exactly, but I know that it wasn't as important anymore. In fact, it didn't seem important at all.

I didn't know who I was, but I knew what I wanted, and what I needed. And I knew that life the way it had been--the way it was--could never matter enough.

Edward pulled me further into his arms. The tips of his fingers traced circles on my wrists, so light that it was like a feather's caress. I opened my eyes to nearly complete darkness. The little light that remained rained down on us from the moon, peeking at us through tree branches, and from the radiance that was Edward's skin.

I look at the moon once, and back at him. And I knew that he something else. He was more than what he thought he was. He was everything.

Edward's lips brushed against my hair, and I closed my eyes again.

I had never felt more alive. Right then, in that moment, as we remained motionless against the floor of the hollow forest, I had never felt so..._real_. Nothing moved around us, only the air, swirling in strange patterns and strange scents and a thickness that made it hard to breathe. My heartbeat seemed to vibrate the delicate leaves suspended from the branches, seemed to echo through the endless forest.

Edward suddenly shifted, and I followed his body in response. He rocked forward and eased me to my feet. I clung to him, feeling the fibers of his shirt rub against my fingertips, and the heat that friction caused. My fingers burned, but I would not let go of him.

He locked his arms around me as well, as if he was determined to keep me from slipping through the cracks. He lowered his lips to my ear. His motions were so slow, but not slow enough. My brain wasn't caught up yet. My heart buzzed and deflated, and then started up again.

"Let's go home," he whispered.


End file.
